All week I haven't been sleeping well. I'm not sure if it's because I'm so in-tune with the babies' movements or what, but I haven't slept "hard" in days. Wednesday night I couldn't get comfortable on either of my sides and tossed and turned. About 3AM I got up and went to the bathroom and for some reason checked on Emma. At 4AM David's alarm went off and he got up and started getting ready for work. I asked him to check on Emma and again, she was fine and sleeping soundly. He kissed me goodbye at 5AM and a few minutes later Emma walked into our bedroom crying and shaking. She was holding her stomache and asked if she could use our potty. She said her tummy hurt and asked for DD. I thought she was going to throw up but as soon as I touched her, knew she was burning up. I took her temperature, gave her Motrin and put her in bed next to me. I tried to cool her down but she had chills and was still shaking badly. I called the after-hours clinic but since it was minutes until the regular offices opened, I waited until then to make a Dr.'s appointment. About 6:30 I called David to fill him in and then Emma and I got some rest until it was time to get ready to go to the Dr.
We went to the Dr. at 9AM- what a mad house! There were kids coughing, bleeding and puking, gross. Emma did not have (and has never developed) any other symptoms but I knew her fever was too high to mess around with. I think when I had taken it early that morning, it was almost 103. By the time we got to the Dr. she had no fever. Her pediatrician told me to watch her closely but at this point there was no reason to test her for the flu. We stocked up on soup and went home to rest. I believe her next dose of Motrin was about Noon after lunch. She wouldn't eat anything that morning so I was glad to see her take a few bites of her chicken noodle soup and she drank a good amount of gatorade and water. About 2PM I had her lay down to take a nap. I tried to rest as well since it had been another interrupted night of sleep for me. I woke up about 3PM to her talking. I asked her to please be quiet and try to sleep. She mumbled something like "I'm still asleep Mommy" but I could clearly hear noises coming from her room.
I went to check on her and she was burning up and shaking again. Her fever did NOT go down after that dose, it went up and was 103.4. Geez, way too high. I put the cool washcloth back on her forehead and stayed with her. She seemed more comfortable and rested until about 4:30 or 5. I was taking her temperature every hour and keeping her hydrated and from 2PM-2AM her fever didn't drop below 102. That evening we put her in a cool bath twice and kept the washcloth on her head. She ate about half of a lunchable, turkey, cheese and crackers and drank another whole bottle of gatorade at dinner. I was so glad she was eating something. She was in better spirits, especially after David got home. When David got home from work I called the night time phone nurses because I didn't like that her fever was climbing. They told me she was still in a safe range, but that if it got to 105, to take her to the ER.
There were a few times during the night that David wanted to pack us up and take her but my intuition just told me we weren't quite to that point yet. In the back of my mind I knew how traumatic a hospital trip would be for all of us, not to mention probably not the best place for me. If Emma didn't already have the flu, we wouldn't want to unneccesarily expose her to it. In the wee hours of the morning, Emma's temperature gradually started to fall about one degree every three hours or so and by the time we got up it was 98.6. Hallelujah! I went to work since David had the day off and there were a few things I really needed to get done there, plus- I'm try to save every second of my sick/vacation time. About 9:30AM I get a phone call from Emma's pediatrician. She had noticed that we had to call the nurse line during the night and wanted to follow up on Emma. When I told her how high Emma's fever had gotten and remained, she immediately said it was the flu. She said that since Emma looked so good on Thursday, that's why she didn't test her then. But 28 out of the 30 cases she tested that day were positive flu cases. And it's not the seasonal flu.
I forgot to mention that Thursday while I was home with Emma, I called her school to let them know she was sick and they told me that a lot of the Fours had been sick this week with a fever.
Dr. Bryant said she would call in a prescription for Tamiflu for Emma. While we were chatting I told her I would call my OB immediately and let them know. Since we weren't face-to-face she had forgotten that I was pregnant. She said, Oh my God, call immediately and try to stay away from Emma. Yeah right, stay away from Emma? I called my OB and they recommended I go to my regular Dr. ASAP. Thirty minutes later, I had Cloroxed my desk and every thing I had come into contact with at the office and was on my way to the Urgent Care clinic. With no visible symptoms and no fever, they didn't test me for the flu but did give me an Rx for Tamiflu in case I started to see symptoms over the weekend. The Dr. told me that 90% of the cases they are treating for the flu are h1N1. He also said as soon as I get a fever, to start taking the Tamiflu. The sooner patients are taking it, the more mild the flu will be. After a good wait at CVS I got all of our prescriptions filled and came home. Evidentally pharmacies all over town are running out of Tamiflu and are having to mix it by hand...which cost me a small fortune.
While I was waiting for our scripts, I ran by Emma's school to pick up her nap stuff so we could get it washed. I talked with Emma's teacher who told me that another little girl in their "grade" had been positively diagnosed with h1n1 the day before. When I got home Emma was playing happily and still had no fever. Hoping the worst for her was behind us, we took it easy that afternoon and David and I were just waiting to start feeling badly ourselves. I ended up taking a four hour nap. Emma ate normally yesterday, just much less than she usual and she was drinking water and gatorade like a champ! Unfortunately long about bed time she had a low grade fever of 101+ so we gave her more Motrin. Hours later during the night David got up to check on her and took her temperature and it was about the same. However, the rest of the day today her temperature has been perfectly normal. The Dr. told me that she is contagious as long as she has the fever so I really hope it does not come back. He also told me that someone is coughing to stay at least 6' away.
Before her fever came back I wasn't convinced that Emma had the flu, let alone the h1n1. But now I am and started looking up info about it. The CDC website has some great information but it also scared me enough to call the nurse again. I'm reading conflicting information about taking Tamiflu as a preventative and all the info I'm seeing about pregnant women and complications (IE death) from h1n1 really has me freaked out. The nurse called the OB on call and then called me back. Basically she told me not to take the Tamiflu unless I have symptoms AND test positive for the flu. She said the pregnant women that are dying with it are taking Tamiflu when they didn't really need to and then when they do have the flu, the Tamiflu is ineffective. That answered that question, but I'm still just so scared. I feel so helpless. Where is this vaccine we keep hearing about? For now I'm doing everything I know to do to be proactive. This afternoon I cleaned the kitchen, cloroxed everything in the kitchen, bathrooms, door knobs, remotes, laptop etc.
Here's what I've learned to look for over the past few days:
- Fever, generally high
- Cough
- Congestion/Runny Nose (generally more often in children)
- Red, scratchy eyes
- Nasuea, vomitting and diarrhea
Emma's Dr. told me that there are numerous strains of the flu going around in our area. So if you only have one of these symptoms and no fever at all, still seek medical advice! The key to this flu is catching it early. The majority of cases they are seeing in Travis Co. are "mild". If you're sick, stay home, if you're children are sick, keep them home from school!
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